Lupishu’s puzzled. He knows 千 and 万 as numbers but he keeps hearing Yocha use them in front of his orders, to ensure Nincha does what he’s asked to. Surprisingly enough, it seems to work and helps Nincha keep out of trouble.

This is the final part IV of our series on Chinese complements: degree complements

Do you guys still remember the lesson we’ve learned in world 3 on how to express simultaneous tasks with 一边...一边? If you forgot about it, please check it before we start today’s grammar lesson because what we are going to show you today is similar to 一边...一边.

了(le) is one of the most frequently used function words in modern Chinese language. By itself, it has no concrete meaning; it should be seen as a “helper” word that has different functions. Although 了 is a really short word, this tiny word leaves Lupishu feeling puzzled on how to use it and where to place it in the sentence. You too? Hold on, we’ll make 了 easier to understand in this lesson! Ready? Let’s look at this particle word 了.

Suffix General Rules

Lupishu’s proud of the progress he’s been making and loves retelling the events in his life, especially the milestones he’s reached so far. But, he’s a little confused. To say “after”, he has two-time words in mind: 后来 (hòu lái) and 然后 (rán hòu), and he’s not sure when he should use which. That’s understandable: 后来 and 然后 can seem very close. They both mean “after, afterward”, so it’s not easy to figure out the difference between the two at first.

Lupishu is proud of the progress he’s been making and loves retelling the events in his life, especially the milestones he’s reached so far. But, he’s a little confused. To say “after,” he has two-time words in mind: 后来 and 然后, and he’s not sure when he should use which. That’s understandable: 后来 and 然后 can seem very close.

Lupishu's starting to get comfortable in the Nincha village. He's tasted and tried all sorts of things with the help of his friends. He's eager to talk about everything he's experienced so far and to be able to proudly show he's done it, but he lacks a crucial word to do so: 过(guò)! He thought at first that he could use 了 to talk about his completed actions, but Yocha told him it didn't work for past experiences. Instead, Yocha said, it's time to get to know another "helper" word, that is great to talk about actions in the past, and experiences: 过!

How am I doing? Is he better than me? Classic questions when you start doing anything! So how do you compare yourself to others in Chinese?

Remember what we first learned about 了 and what it means when placed right after the verb? Correct, it indicates completed actions - see lesson. It’s now time to tackle what 了 means when it’s placed elsewhere in the sentence, and particularly at the end of the sentence. Ready?

The first time you saw Lupishu, did you think he was a snake? You quickly learned you were totally mistaken and that Lupishu is a little cute and intelligent dragon, right? Well, the Chinese have two different verbs to show that you “thought" and “mistakenly thought”, isn't that meowsome? Let us show you how to tell the difference between thinking correctly and thinking wrongly in Chinese with 认为 (rènwéi) and 以为 (yǐwéi)!

Don’t just stand there! Do something! Sometimes, in life, there are situations where you just have to say that to someone, right? Wouldn’t you love to know how to say that in Chinese? I knew you would. So today, we’re going to learn about 着 (zhe). 着 comes in handy when you want to talk about something you are currently doing, or talk about an on-going situation.

经过 and 通过 . Perhaps you’ve noticed these two words in your learning, and you’ve started wondering: hang on, this is confusing. These two share a common character, and they both mean the same thing, ‘to go through”.

Regarding studying Chinese, what is the best way to learn it? If you want to ask someone for their opinion, a term you need to learn in Mandarin Chinese is “in regards to/ with”. In Chinese, there are three words you can use to say that: 对 / 对于/ 关于. May you have come across them before? All three have similar meanings of “concerning, regarding, as for”. As you can imagine, each word has its own context in which you can use it; let’s see which you can use when!

This is part II of our series on Complements: talking about results with result complements.

The word 倒 is fascinating in Chinese, and it has many practical usages.

Now that you’ve learned numbers in Chinese, I bet Lupishu, you’re eager to count things. However, lovely little dragon, you can’t quite count objects yet. You’re missing one key notion to do so: measure words in Chinese!

The best Chinese Phrasebook for fast, easy and essential sentences when you’re visiting China, living as an expat there or want to start learning Mandarin Chinese. Recommended app for tourists and business people visiting a Chinese speaking Country.

Lupishu’s talking to Nincha, and he’s sure about one thing: he prefers chicken claws to catnip. He wants to convince Nincha and show him he’s certain of his choice. Lupishu’s not sure though: which word should he use for “certain”? Is it 肯定, 一定 or 确定? Suddenly, he’s not so sure.

There's nothing Lupishu enjoys more than telling others of the adventure he's on, the new friends he's made learning Chinese, the moments where things got tough and motivation wavered a bit, but more importantly, how he always recovered. Why is that? Because Lupishu has a clear sense of purpose. He knows why he and Nincha have to face so many trials, he knows how much is at stake. One thing he doesn't know, though, is to express his purpose in Chinese. What words should he use? Dear Master Yocha luckily has a feline 6th sense and as always, knows this is the time he needs to swoop in and save the day.

In our daily life, sometimes, you start doing something and, in the end, do something entirely different.

Lupishu has gotten quite confused: at first, there was 这 and 那, then 哪. Then words like 那个, 这个, 哪儿 and more showed up. These new words look a lot like 这, 那 and 哪 but don't quite mean the same!

Sometimes, there are words like that. They have a funny name and are a pain to work with. Lucky for you, 比起 isn't like that. Lupishu knows 比起 sounds very close to 比, and imagine his relief when he realized this comparison word was actually super easy to use! So let's dive in and learn how to use this advanced way of making a comparison in Chinese.

Now that you’ve learned numbers in Chinese, I bet Lupishu, you’re eager to count things. However, lovely little dragon, you can’t quite count objects yet. You’re missing one key notion to do so: measure words in Chinese!

Just not so long ago, Yocha told me he almost won a million dollars in the lottery. Wow! The numbers were correct, but you know what? He wrote them down on a piece of paper; unfortunately, he forgot to buy those numbers! What a pity!

Now that you have the basic sentence structure down pat, it’s time to move on to more complex sentences.

Our Lupishu is a little confused right now. When he first caught sight of these two words 刚 & 刚才, he thought since they looked alike and shared the same meaning of “just now,” that maybe one was just a shorter version of the other. However, that’s not the case at all!

For Lupishu, there’s a BEFORE and an AFTER - before Nincha found him, and after he became part of the Nincha family. But how do you say that in Chinese? Now that you and Lupishu have learned how to tell the time and talk about dates precisely, it’s time to learn how to talk about time in general, without having to specify when precisely.

Do you guys remember how to compare something with 比? Since you guys are so cool at learning Chinese, it’s time to show you two other simple patterns you can use to compare things in Mandarin Chinese.

Say something horrible were to happen to Nincha and Lupishu, such as they get thrown into prison, how would you say that in Chinese?

Today, Lupishu isn't very happy because the weather suddenly turned bad and he can’t go picnicking with Nincha anymore. I bet you guys also sometimes come across things that have unexpectedly changed. Don’t be upset when that happens, go with the flow, and let’s learn how to express this situation in Chinese together!

Just like in English, where “out”; “over; “up”, “down” etc. give very different meanings to the verb “turn”, Mandarin Chinese is full of words you can add to a verb to specify and describe its action. These words are called complements. There are all sorts of complements in Chinese: direction complements, degree complements, potential complements, result complements...

Remember how in the previous stages we learned about direction complements, that is to say, words you attach to a verb to describe or explain the direction of the action expressed by the verb? Well, now, we’re moving on to learning to describe slightly more complex directions. Ready to learn part II of the direction complements, direction complement combos?

This is part III of our Series on Chinese Complements: expressing potential with complements

Little Dragon, here's a question for you. When you see a two-character word, you take it at face value and assume it's a single block, right? In a lot of cases, you are right to leave the two characters that make up the word together: they have no business being apart. But did you know that some word blocks are different and can be split into two in a sentence? These words are called separable verbs, a name which describes verbs that can be separated into two parts.

Aside from “Shu”, 吧 is one of Lupishu’s favorite particles to use in Chinese, ever since he learned about it in world 2. Maybe it’s one of yours too? Lupishu’s a big dragon now, though, so he feels ready for bigger, more advanced words. That’s smart, so it’s time to introduce a new more advanced particle word in Chinese: 呗！呗 is both close to 吧 and it isn’t. Let’s see why!

Recently the weather has turned unpredictable. It’ll start to rain suddenly without any warning, even though it is a sunny day. And then the rain doesn’t last a long time. Strange.

Lupishu’s gotten used to the good life, and having now traveled quite a lot through Ninchana, he’s very clear on what he likes and doesn’t like. So he’s very interested in knowing a new comparison word that allows him specifically to make negative comparisons. And indeed, with 不如, precisely, you can say “things aren’t as good as” something else. Let’s learn about 不如!

Lupishu’s been thinking a lot about his friends and the Ninchas he left back home while on his journey. Writing letters to them is a good way to feel better and he’s realizing there are a lot of expressions you can use verbally that sound a lot better when put differently in writing in Chinese. Even the little word “even” has a special word in writing: 甚至!

Are you wondering about the use of “all” in Chinese? No worries, we are here to help, let us explain it all.

Imagine you find yourself in an urgent situation: you're about to take the HSK test, and you realize you forgot your pens at home! Then you need to borrow one immediately from someone, right?!

Is there something that you must do or that must be done by someone? I bet all of you guys find yourselves bound to such situations in daily life. You could use 必须 to say you “should” or “must” do when you need to talk about a situation where you have no choice. But today is not one of those days.

Among all the Chinese learners, Lupishu think he's the cleverest!

In Chinese, when you are describing an action or a thing, you can use one of these frequency words 经常, 常常, 平常, 平时... These four are really useful, but you may find them not easy to use. Don't feel anxious about it, we have well-classified them.

Really, Lupishu is enjoying learning Chinese with Nincha! It's so effective!

As in the last lesson, we’ve learned the structure 连...都/也 to emphasize a specific situation when you express your determination. You can furthermore communicate your confidence by using these sentence patterns to express “let alone”.

Since you guys have started studying Chinese with Nincha, you’ve already made great progress. That’s cool! So today let’s show you guys how to express “since...then” in Chinese.

The Chinese love to pepper their speech with interjections and particles. Some are extremely common and useful to know! You'll get the hang of them as you interact with native speakers, but here's a little push.

The Chinese love to pepper their speech with interjections and particles. Some are extremely common and useful to know! You'll get the hang of them as you interact with native speakers, but here's a little push.

Yocha’s always trying to instill some manners into Nincha and warning Lupishu not to do the same silly things. A sentence structure he particularly loves to use is 如果...就 -- "If...then".

Is this for me? Oh, it’s for that guy over there. No fun.

The Chinese love to pepper their speech with interjections and particles. Some are extremely common and useful to know! Like the lesson on 呢 you've seen previously. You'll get the hang of them as you interact with native speakers, but here's a little push.